Find your M.V.P.

Wednesday, July 31, 2013

The Creative Coast’s blogspot is Savannah’s sounding board for local thinkers, innovators, wanderers and wonderers. Guest bloggers share their thoughts, opinions and creative noodling from all over the map. This week’s blog is from Steven Scarborough, retired rocker and current interaction designer with SCAD. In a few short riffs, Steven cuts through the clutter and lays down a good tune…read on!

You may have heard about having a minimum viable product, but what does that actually mean?

I make my living building websites, so to me, having a minimum viable product means focusing on the core goals of a project, building deliverables that support those goals, and then scaling accordingly.

For example, you have a new product that will be sold locally and you need a website to market your goods. You may be tempted to build an e-commerce solution with deep linking reviews and a rating system out of the gate, but you should focus on what you absolutely need to get started, everything else can wait.

This isn’t about cutting corners and producing poor quality. The goal is to get it to market, gain feedback, and iterate often.

But what if you’re not starting a business, or expanding an existing one? Maybe you would like to start a garden, write a book, or learn to fish?

I think finding your MVP can apply here as well.

There are so many gadgets and unnecessary items that clutter the learning process that they can get in the way of actually doing the task at hand. Do your homework, make a plan, and move forward.

You shouldn’t have to plant an acre of vegetables to learn how to grow a tomato.

Steven Scarborough, http://sdscarborough.com, is an interactive designer at SCAD
and a online product design consultant. His background includes positions with top innovators including Rails Machine, Music Intelligence Solutions and The Kloud Agency.